Agenda item

Verbal Updates

To receive any verbal updates from representatives, including:

·       Wiltshire Police – Inspector Simon Garret

·       Police and Crime Commissioner - Philip Wilkinson OBE

·       Town and Parish Councils

Written Updates

The Board is asked to note the following written or online updates attached to the agenda:

·       Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS) online update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVJRnk705PM

Updates were received as follows:

·       Wiltshire Police– Inspector Simon Garret, Devizes Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT)

The Inspector ran through his slides (which were updated following agenda publication, and the updated version is therefore appended to these minutes), focusing on the crime summary.

For November and December 2024 there had been 300 crimes and 305 incidents. Crime figures overall were relatively stable, with some crimes increasing and some decreasing. There had been a reasonably significant reduction in violent and sexual offences.

There had been 10 burglaries in the November-December 2024 period, which was a reduction compared to the prior 2 months. These burglaries covered homes, outbuildings and businesses. The reduction was due to a series of burglaries which had been attributed to some local youths, 1 of which was now on remand.

The FAT rate (formerly known as the detection rate) was detailed and this had improved.

In the community the police locally had undertaken rural crime operations; given burglary prevention advice; undertaken mobile police station community engagements and helped to catch a burglary suspect who had received a custodial sentence. In addition, a male had been found guilty of attempted murder, the officers who had arrested the suspect had been very brave, as the suspect was armed with a knife. Some drug related warrants had been enacted, with suspects arrested and drugs and cash seized. Speed enforcement had taken place on several dates in various locations. Those breaking the speed limit had been issued with speeding tickets, with some offered speed awareness courses, others receiving fines and some given notices of intended prosecution.

Attendees then had the opportunity to ask questions of the Inspector.

A representative of West Lavington Parish Council state that they had been very pleased to have the police undertake speed enforcement in their parish. However, their Community Speed Watch (CSW) locations had been reduced from 5 to 1 following a traffic survey, and they queried if there was a way to get other CSW locations in the village. It was highlighted that this was due to statistics showing that most of the traffic was doing less than 35 miles per hour, however there were still 600 vehicles a day that were speeding. The Inspector stated that they should email him outside of the meeting and he would see if there was anything that could be done.

In response to a question on speed awareness courses, it was stated that it was thought that these took place online, but the Inspector was not certain. A Member of the Board stated that the speed awareness course was in person again now.

A member of the audience queried whether any speeding enforcement had taken place in Devizes since the 20mph limit had been introduced on some roads as it was not felt that the limit was being observed. In addition, they felt that Station Road was an accident waiting to happen, as there were often parked cars around a blind bend. Sergeant Chirs Wickham, who was in attendance with the Inspector, stated that Station Road had come up in previous conversations with the Chairman, often related to parking for St Joseph’s Primary School at school drop off and pick up times. When he met with the local speed enforcement officer, he would raise this, and they would look to undertake some enforcement. They would see if they could also get parking enforcement to attend at school times, so a joint effort could be made to try to address issues. Long Street was also raised as an issue.

·       Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) – Philip Wilkinson OBE.

The PCC stated that in an Office of National Statistics (ONS) report which had recently come out, Wiltshire was found to be the safest county in the country, with only 52 crimes per 1,000 people. It also had the lowest rates of county lines and drugs issues. Wiltshire Police had been doing really well disrupting county lines, which occurred mainly in Swindon. In addition, knife crime was down by 34%. However, 1 victim of crime was too many so there was always more to do.

Consultation had been undertaken on the new Police and Crime Plan. The foundations were now in place to be more specific to deliver on residents’ behalf. The role of the PCC was to hold the Wiltshire Chief Constable to account. A lot of police officers had been recruited, and their training was now coming to fruition. The ability of the police to deliver was getting better, communication with the public was better, and the website had been improved. Furthermore, the control centre, which used to have the lowest statistics in the country, was now in the top half across the country and was achieving national targets, for example answering 999 calls in less than 10 seconds. They would work holistically to try to address issues and reduce reoffending.

Speeding was an issue that concerned everyone, and the number of speeding tickets issued had increased dramatically when compared to several years ago. Retail and rural crime had both been focuses for the police and had been significant and major successes. Finances were an issue, as government funding was not enough, and even by increasing the police precept, there would still be a shortfall. A decision had been taken not to take officers off the beat. However, difficult decisions may need to be taken with rationalisations elsewhere, such as selling fleet or closing stations. Hopefully natural churn would mean that there would not need to be redundancies.

The PCC highlighted that if the national police funding formula did not change there would be difficult times ahead and this had been emphasised to the police minister. Wiltshire Police was the second lowest funded force in the country, mainly due to the geography of Wiltshire, with Salisbury plain in the middle which was a large area with a low population density, and this distorted the figures.

Members of the Board congratulated the PCC on the turnaround of the force. In addition, they queried the link between the military police and the Wiltshire police. In response it was explained that the military and civilian police did work together, had a good relationship and shared information and problems. However, a lot of the military police had been removed from Wiltshire.

Rural crime was discussed further and the PCC highlighted Operation Ragwort, which had focused on rural crime.

·       Town and Parish Councils

Devizes Town Council and Steve Dwyer of Devizes Youth For Christ (YFC), gave a brief update on the Youth Space which was being developed in Sidmouth Street. There had been a lot of interest and support from the community and things were going well. The building was nearly ready, and it was hoped that Devizes would buck trends and help young people to face challenges.

Bishops Cannings Parish Council highlighted that they had open a play area for older children which had been a significant investment, and a community project had been developed where community volunteers worked alongside those from the care home. In addition, the LHFIG and supported improving road safety, although this was still a work in progress.  

The Chairman thanked everyone for their updates and highlighted a video from the Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS) which was linked to on the agenda and could be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVJRnk705PM.